Terry Ibele (Mozen) interview

Mozen thought he could either knock out another quick animation to add to his list or answer some questions, I used my methods of persuasion to do the animation later. Here are his replies.

1. Your style of your work is very unique. Do you have an art background or does your trademark style come from somewhere else?

ummm, no. I guess it all comes from my first ‘official’ short film “Little Bits” where I was trying to make things easy and simple, so I went with basic shapes and faces with only eyes and mouths. I guess it all went from there.

2. Your films are mostly really short ones that are like a really well-designed joke. It builds up super fast, delivers the punch line, and gets out. Have you ever considered doing a longer short?

Well, there are my longer shorts “Little Bits” and “Supercow” which are over three minutes long, and of course “Sad Mr. Fastenpart” (which is over 10 minutes), actually right now I am creating/planning another longer film, I just made the two main characters the other day.

3. Your sound recording always sounds really crisp and clean. Any tips or suggestions so we improve our own sound?

My sound is crisp eh? Seriously I just speak or do whatever into my camera and that’s it.

4. What camera and software setup are you using?

My camera is a panasonic something handheld video camera, I bought it a few years ago to film “Sad Mr. Fastenpart”, the best thing about it is that it’s got a remote so I can press ‘record’ and ‘stop’ from a distance. I use Adobe Premiere 6.5 for the editing. I honestly have no clue what you guys are talking about by using special cameras and frame grabbers, etc.

5. Got any major goals within this craft?

HOBBY!

6. What do you consider your biggest weakness?

This may sound wierd, but lack of ideas. My animations are usually just the outcome of me trying to think of a good idea, and then just making due. Also, lack of time and stop-mo-knowledge. For instance, I’ve never used tie-downs so I avoid walking motions, the clay I use is also pretty soft (it’s from the dollar store) so I avoid too much limb movements too, because it usually droops.

7. Your work seems like a perfect match for advertising, have you ever had offers or would you consider doing ads?

offers: nope
suggestions from fans: yep

8. Any tips on how we can better entertain our paying customers?

as soon as I get paid, I’ll let you know

9. You watch a lot of animations, including a lot of beginners’ work. Have you seen any that really stood out lately?

lately? well there is this one that i just watched the other day called “clothespin”, it’s on the stop mo film discussion board. I really liked the character movements in it.

> 10 Write and answer your last question..
Q:what are you doing right now?
A: I am making banana bread!